What Private Label Means At A Factory
Private label is usually described as your logo on our product. That description is the reason many private label launches fail at the second order. A logo is the last thing applied to a tray. The specification is the first thing decided, and it is the part that decides whether the tray you approve is the tray you receive again.
FanLash runs its own production. Trays, fans, labels and boxes are planned inside the same operation, which changes what a private label conversation can cover. There is no trading company translating your brief to a workshop you never speak to, and no second supplier to coordinate when packaging and product have to line up. The decisions that matter — fan count per tray, base construction, curl, diameter, length mix, tray format, label copy — are taken with the people who run the line.
The practical difference shows up in three places: what can be customised, whether a change can be confirmed on a real tray, and whether the approved reference survives into later batches. This page covers all three, then sets out what to prepare before you ask for a quotation.
What You Are Actually Buying: A Specification, Not A Logo
Private label is not a logo stamped on a stock tray. What you are buying is a specification that belongs to your brand, and a supply relationship that keeps producing it. Curl, diameter, length mix, base construction and tray count are recorded against your SKU rather than borrowed from a catalogue number that can change without notice.
The consequence appears at reorder. A brand that owns its specification can hand the same reference back six months later and receive trays that match what its artists approved. A brand that bought a private label box around a generic product finds out at reorder that the underlying tray has drifted, and the packaging now labels something that no longer exists.
Because production happens in our own facility, packaging and product are planned together. Label artwork is checked against the tray that will carry it, the box interior is specified for the tray size, and the insert card is written for the specification you actually ship. Launch decisions stop depending on two suppliers agreeing over email.
What The Specification Sheet Locks Before Production
A useful specification sheet answers the questions a production line will ask, in the order it asks them. Density comes first, because fan count per tray sets the pick-up rhythm your artists will feel. Stem construction comes next, because base shape decides how the fan sits on a natural lash. Then curl, diameter and length mix, which together determine how a set reads on the eye. Tray format and pack count close the sheet, because they decide what the customer physically opens.
Each of those fields is a decision you can defend to a buyer, a trainer or an educator. Each one is also a decision that becomes expensive to change once packaging has been printed. That is why the sheet is agreed before artwork, not after.
We keep the approved sample as the reference for later batches. When a reorder is placed against that reference, the line is working from a physical tray and a written record at the same time, which is the only reliable way to hold a specification across production runs.
Stock Range And Custom Range: 4D–12D On The Shelf, 2D–14D On Request
FanLash holds 56 stock specifications: seven densities (4D, 5D, 7D, 8D, 9D, 10D, 12D), four stem types, and two tray formats, single and mixed. That stock matrix exists so a new private label line can start without a development cycle. You pick the densities your market already asks for, choose the stem and tray that fit your artists, and the first order is built from specifications that already run on our line.
Custom production goes wider than the stock list. Any density between 2D and 14D can be produced to your specification, including counts that sit between the standard steps. Diameter, length range, curl, stem and tray format can be set to your brief as well.
The distinction matters commercially. Stock specifications keep the entry point low and the first order simple. Custom densities let a brand occupy a position no catalogue covers — a 6D fan for a specific lash style, a 13D fan for a market that wants weight without width, a density that matches a competitor's tray exactly. A private label programme usually starts on stock and moves into custom as the brand learns what its own market reorders.
Two things are worth saying plainly. Stock range is not a limit on what we can produce, and custom range is not a promise that every density behaves identically on the eye. Density changes weight and spread, and the tray your artists approve at 8D is not automatically transferable to 12D. Test the density you intend to sell.
Stem Type And Tray Format: Two Decisions Buyers Underestimate
Stem type is the decision brands most often inherit by accident. Tapered point, short stem, long stem and waistband tape each change how a fan meets the natural lash, how much contact area the base creates, and how quickly an artist can place it. A salon running classic sets and a studio running dense volume sets will not want the same stem, even when they want the same density.
Tray format is the second. A single-length tray suits repeat salon stock, predictable counts and artists who build a set from a small number of lengths. A mixed tray suits artists working across the eye in one pass, and it suits retail-facing brands whose customers expect a complete set in one box. The two formats carry the same fans; they change the workflow around them.
Both decisions are cheap to change on a sample and expensive to change after packaging is printed. Settle them with the artists who will actually use the product, then write them into the specification.
Packaging: What Can Be Printed, Applied And Filled
Packaging runs on three levels, and buyers usually conflate them. The tray level carries your logo, SKU naming and specification text. The box level carries the format — slide, magnetic, book style or plastic case — plus finish and structure. The insert level carries seal stickers, insert cards and care instructions.
Private label projects go wrong when the three levels are designed independently. A box interior specified for one tray size will not hold a different tray cleanly. A label designed for a wide tray will not sit on a narrow one. An insert card that describes a mixed tray contradicts a box filled with single-length stock.
Because trays and boxes are produced inside the same operation, these conflicts are caught before printing rather than after delivery. Artwork is checked against the tray that will carry it, and the packaging proof is approved against the same specification the product was approved on.
If your artwork is not ready, say so. A plain sample run still proves the product, and the packaging decision can follow once the tray is settled.
The Sample Approval Step
Sample approval is the point where a private label project becomes real. Everything before it is intent; everything after it is production against a reference. The step deserves more attention than it usually gets.
Approval should confirm more than the look of a fan. It should confirm that the density behaves the way your artists expect, that the stem suits the application, that the curl and length mix read correctly on the eye, that the tray count matches what you intend to sell, and that the packaging carries the specification you approved. Approving a tray in isolation and discovering a packaging conflict later is the most common avoidable delay in this category.
We treat the approved sample as the reference for later production. That is the reason the approval step is documented rather than conversational: a physical tray plus a written record is what a repeat order can actually be measured against.
How A Private Label Project Runs
A project runs in four movements. You send your logo and brand assets. You select the product: lash lines, densities, curl, thickness, lengths and tray format. You confirm the sample kit, which approves product and packaging before production. Production and shipping then run against that approved specification.
The order of those movements is not administrative. Each one narrows the decisions the next one can take, which is what keeps a project from reopening questions that packaging has already closed. A brand that selects product before deciding tray format, for example, will usually re-select product once the format is fixed.
Projects differ in how much development they need. Where the product already exists in our stock range, the work is sample approval plus a packaging proof. Where the density, stem or construction is new, a development round sits between selection and approval. Both routes end at the same place: an approved physical reference.
Reorder Is The Real Test
Every private label supplier looks convincing on the first order. The second order is where a programme is actually judged, because the second order is placed against memory rather than against a tray in hand.
Three things fail at reorder. The tray drifts, because the specification was never written down and the line worked from an impression. The packaging drifts, because a reprint used a different artwork version. The count drifts, because the tray label was never tied to a pack count. None of these are visible on the first delivery, and all of them are visible to your customers.
The defence is unglamorous: a written specification, an approved sample held on file, a packaging proof with a version, and a QC process that inspects against those documents rather than against a general impression of quality. That is how a tray approved in one quarter still matches a tray produced in the next.
What To Prepare Before You Ask For A Quote
Four things shorten a quotation more than anything else. First, the range you intend to sell: which densities, which curls, which lengths. A narrow starting range is easier to hold consistent than a wide one, and it makes the first production run cheaper to test. Second, your tray format: single length or mixed, and why. Third, your packaging direction: box style, finish, and whether you need a label, sleeve, insert card or seal. Fourth, your market and volume: where you sell, how you sell, and roughly how many trays a month, which shapes the starting quantity and the reorder interval.
If any of those are undecided, say which ones. A brand that arrives with a density range and a tray format but no artwork is easier to quote than a brand that arrives with a logo and no product decision. We would rather build the first order around the two decisions you have made than around four decisions you have not.
Two documents carry the rest of the conversation: the specification sheet and the packaging proof. Both are working documents, and both can change before approval. After approval they become the contract.
Private Label FAQ
**What is the minimum order for private label?** MOQ 50 trays for stock specifications. Fully custom printed packaging carries its own minimum, which is confirmed in the quotation.
**Can I use my own box artwork?** Yes. Send the artwork as vector, we place it on the die line, and you confirm it on a printed proof before production.
**How long does a private label project take?** It depends on whether the product already exists. Projects built on stock specifications run on sample approval plus a packaging proof. Projects that need a new density, stem or construction add a development round before approval.
**Do trays and boxes ship together?** Yes. Packaging is produced alongside the lash trays and dispatched as one order, against the same approved specification.
**Can I order stock first and move to custom later?** Yes, and most brands do. Start on the 56 stock specifications, learn which densities your market reorders, then move those densities into a custom specification once the demand is proven.
**What densities can you produce?** Stock covers 4D, 5D, 7D, 8D, 9D, 10D and 12D. Custom production covers any density between 2D and 14D, including values between the standard steps.
Start Your Private Label Line
Send your logo, your product interest and your target market. We reply with a sample route and a production plan built around the specification you intend to sell.
Two decisions make the first reply useful: the density range you want to start with, and whether your tray will be single length or mixed. Everything else can follow.
Request Private Label Plan
